Howard Parker and Joe Parsley were honored with the Top Hand Award from the Permian Basin Petroleum Association at its annual dinner Thursday at Midland Center.

The two formed a partnership in 1962 known as Parker & Parsley. In the mid-1980s Parker, a geologist, and Parsley, and engineer, sold their company to management. In 1997 the company became Pioneer Natural Resources following a merger with Mesa Inc. and is now the nation’s third largest independent oil and gas operators.

Parker is a fourth generation oil and gas man, the son of an independent oil and gas driller. He credits Parsley’s skills in successfully drilling wells with the partnership’s success, while Parsley credits Parker’s skills in acquiring leases and investors willing to buy interests in their wells.

Parsley initially studied architectural engineering but, after hearing his father, who had bought a drilling rig, talk about drilling for oil and gas, switched to petroleum engineering.